Home Affairs ‘not a security agency’

According to the data, there was a three percent increase in the number of British travellers to South Africa during November 1 to December 23, 2015.

According to the data, there was a three percent increase in the number of British travellers to South Africa during November 1 to December 23, 2015.

Published Jul 7, 2015

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Cape Town - “We will be going nowhere if we throw stones at each other,” Home Affairs Deputy Minister Fatima Chohan told participants at a Wesgro conference on visa regulations on Monday.

 

Held in Cape Town, the conference was to restore relations between the business and tourism sector, and the Department of Home Affairs.

The department’s new visa regime has rubbed tourism the wrong way, but

Chohan said the department was neither a security agency nor there to only promote businesses.

“The new legislation is not Home Affairs legislation. It emanates from the Children’s Act of 2005. That comes directly from the decision of the Constitutional Court. When a child leaves the country the parents’ consent is required and this is a matter of implementation,” she said.

 

She said in other countries this information was on the parents’ passport. In the future, Home Affairs would consider having similar South African passports.

SA Tourism Services Association committee member Mark Finkenstein questioned why the local tourism industry was only being consulted now.

“… each immigrant desk for arrival will have 190 specimens of unabridged birth certificates in different languages. If three flights came in one day it will take a day for one flight to be cleared of all admin involved,” Finkenstein said.

Cullinan Holdings chief executive Michael Tollman said with more than 100 million Chinese tourists worldwide, they were becoming the world’s biggest growth market. For tourism to grow, the Chinese market must be accommodated.

 

Wesgro chief executive Tim Harris said: “The aim of the workshop was to re-establish a link between the two sectors.”

 

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